EBSCO Information Services continues to support open source technology for libraries

Press Release:
EBSCO Information Services
[September 12, 2016]

Copyright (c) 2016 EBSCO Information Services

Abstract: EBSCO Information Services continues to provide support in advocating open source and open access. EBSCO has agreed to provide additional financial support to Koha, the world’s first full-featured, free open source Integrated Library System (ILS) that is used worldwide by more than 15,000 libraries of all types.

12 Sep 2016. EBSCO Information Services (EBSCO) continues to provide support in advocating open source and open access. EBSCO has agreed to provide additional financial support to Koha, the world's first full-featured, free open source Integrated Library System (ILS) that is used worldwide by more than 15,000 libraries of all types.

EBSCO began providing financial support to Koha in February 2015. This latest contribution will help with the next phase of community driven enhancements, including support for additional system interoperability as well as acquisition and e-resource management capabilities in Koha such as:

Creation of an acquisitions API

Complete implementation of ordering and invoicing system

Improve interoperability between Koha and CORAL to provide an Open Source solution combining traditional ILS work flows and ERM functionality

Plug-in integration to Italy's Indice SBN

Vice President of Global Software Services at EBSCO Ron Burns, says the company has always been committed to expanding options for libraries. "EBSCO has a long history of supporting open source and open initiatives. We understand that the library market demands interoperability and more choices which is why we continue to support the great work and efforts of the Koha community."

The financial support from EBSCO will be provided via the Koha Gruppo Italiano/ The American University of Rome, which will be assisted in this development and integration by key Koha contributors ByWater Solutions, Biblibre and @Cult. In keeping with open source tradition, these enhancements to Koha are truly open source and will be available for others to use, modify and re-distribute.

Work on the enhancements mentioned above are expected to be completed by the first quarter of 2017.

About Koha

Koha is the first open-source Integrated Library System (ILS). In use worldwide, its development is steered by a growing community of libraries collaborating to achieve their technology goals. Koha's impressive feature set continues to evolve and expand to meet the needs of its user base. It includes modules for circulation, cataloging, acquisitions, serials, reserves, patron management, branch relationships, and more.

Koha's OPAC, circulation, management and self-checkout interfaces are all based on standards-compliant World Wide Web technologies–XHTML, CSS and Javascript–making Koha a truly platform-independent solution. Koha is distributed under the open-source General Public License (GPL). For more information about Koha, please visit: http://koha-community.org

About CORAL

CORAL is an electronic resource management system built by the University of Notre Dame's Hesburgh Libraries. The first module, Licensing, was released as open source software in the summer of 2010 and we have continued releasing new modules since then. It is designed to be both simple and highly customizable – each module can be installed independently or used together depending on your library's needs. If you do decide to install the entire suite, easy access to linked records help make sense of the electronic resource through the entire life cycle: acquisition, licensing, administration, support and usage. CORAL runs on PHP 5, MySQL 5 and your webserver. It is a very small installation and most users (including Notre Dame) have it installed on a server alongside other production applications. CORAL is released as open source software under GPL v. 3 and is available on GitHub. For more information about CORAL, please visit: http://coral-erm.org/

About EBSCO Information Services

EBSCO Information Services (EBSCO) is the leading discovery service provider for libraries worldwide with more than 10,000 discovery customers in over 100 countries. EBSCO Discovery Service (EDS) provides each institution with a comprehensive, single search box for its entire collection, offering unparalleled relevance ranking quality and extensive customization. EBSCO is also the preeminent provider of online research content for libraries, including hundreds of research databases, historical archives, point-of-care medical reference, and corporate learning tools serving millions of end users at tens of thousands of institutions. EBSCO is the leading provider of electronic journals & books for libraries, with subscription management for more than 360,000 serials, including more than 57,000 e-journals, as well as online access to more than 800,000 e-books. For more information, visit the EBSCO website at: http://www.ebsco.com. EBSCO Information Services is a division of EBSCO Industries Inc., a family owned company since 1944.